Existing networks (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, WLAN etc., and evolution thereof) and future Radio Access and Core Networks (5G, 6G, etc.) require solutions for supporting optimized network functionality for addressing new use cases for cellular technologies.
Evolved Packet System (EPS) is the Evolved 3GPP Packet Switched Domain and consists of Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). EPS also supports packet switched access over GSM/EDGE Radio Access (GERA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).
FIG. 1 illustrates an example EPC architecture for 3GPP accesses (GERAN, UTRAN and E-UTRAN), which includes, for example, a PGW (PDN Gateway), SGW (Serving Gateway), PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function), MME (Mobility Management Entity), HSS (Home Subscriber Service) and mobile device (UE). The LTE radio access, E-UTRAN, consists of one more eNBs. FIG. 1 illustrates the architecture for 3GPP accesses. In these types of accesses, the radio interface is specified by 3GPP (e.g., E-UTRA).
FIG. 2 illustrates an example E-UTRAN architecture. The E-UTRAN consists of eNBs, providing the E-UTRA user plane (PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UE. The eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the X2 interface. The eNBs are also connected by means of the S1 interface to the EPC (Evolved Packet Core), more specifically to the MME (Mobility Management Entity) by means of the S1-MME interface and to the Serving Gateway (S-GW) by means of the S1-U interface.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example EPC Control Plane (CP) protocol architecture. The EPC CP protocol architecture consists of various layers (physical, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS) for the UE, eNB, MME, SGW and PGW network components.
FIG. 4 illustrates an example EPC User Plane (UP) protocol architecture. The EPC UP protocol architecture consists of various layers (physical, MAC, RLC, PDCP, IP and application) for the UE, eNB, SGW and PGW network components.
Future networks are expected to support new use cases going beyond the basic support for voice services and mobile broadband (MBB) currently supported by existing cellular networks (e.g., 2G/3G/4G). An example new use case includes evolution of MBB including evolved communication services, cloud services, and extended mobility and coverage. Another example new use case includes mission critical machine type communication including intelligent traffic systems, smart grid, and industrial applications. Another example new use case includes massive machine type communication including sensors/actuators and capillary networks. Another example new use case includes Media including efficient on-demand media delivery, media awareness, and efficient support for broadcast services.
These use cases are expected to have different performance requirements (e.g., bit-rates, latencies, mobility, availability etc.) as well as other network requirements affecting the network architecture and protocols. Supporting these new use cases may require that new players and business relations are needed compared to existing cellular technologies. For example, it is expected that future networks should address the needs of enterprise services, governments services (e.g., national safety, verticals industries (e.g., industry automation, transportation), and residential users. These different users and services are also expected to place new requirements on the network.
Accordingly, it is expected that new services with a wide range of heterogeneous requirements need to be supported. There is a need to be able to support these new services in a cost efficient way using common network infrastructure (e.g., radio, transport, networking, processing, and storage) and functional components (e.g., mobility manager) applied to specific business segments (e.g., verticals with specific requirements), while still making it possible to optimize the network when it comes to deployment, functionality needed, scalability, etc. for these new services. Additionally, it is desired by one of ordinary skill in the art to provide isolation between the different business segments of the common network infrastructure to prevent one user associated with one or more services from causing problems to other users and services.
The capabilities of existing networks and standards to provide the above-described isolation and optimization are limited. For example, all users must be connected to the same MBB core network within on PLMN. In another example, while it is possible to use Access Point (AP) names to perform partitioning higher up in the core network, the lower parts (MEE, SGW) of the network are left with no options of isolation, resource reservations or per service/segment or optimization. In yet another example, while it is possible to share the RAN between multiple PLMNs, a particular PLMN cannot be further partitioned.
In some 3GPP solutions, one (or more) dedicated core networks (DÉCOR) (also referred to as “network partitions” or “slices”) within a PLMN with each core network dedicated for a specific type(s) of subscriber may add the possibility to re-route an attach message to a separate MBB partition. However, this 3GPP solution is limited to the use of UMTS AKA authentication and requires that the base slice provides a MME that can do the authentication and use the information from the HSS to select the partition for rerouting. In that regard, the user must be defined in the operator HSS (for both partitions) and is a limitation when providing an enterprise specific partition since the enterprise needs to be able to manage user data via the operator. Moreover, to the extent that some network components, such as the MME and HSS are commonly relied on, the ability to provide resource reservation/guarantees for a partition and the ability to provide isolation from a security/integrity point-of-view are limited. Further, having to rely on common network infrastructure component may also complicate functionality both technically and from an operation perspective, which may lead to longer lead time for new services and for the activation of new customers (e.g., wholesale). Additionally, redirection is limited in that extra signaling is involved, which may cause delays, load, and potential issues in recovery situations (e.g., when many UEs reconnect and all of the UEs need to be redirected).
Thus, there is a need for a solution that allows the use of alternative authentication mechanisms without the need to use data in the operator's network (e.g., user data handled by an enterprise customer, but used to authorize access into a particular network partition).